Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) [PG-13] ****

A
film review by James Berardinelli, on August 4, 2011.

Rise of the Planet
of the Apes
represents Fox's attempt to reinvigorate a dormant franchise. The new movie is
technically a prequel to the 1968 Planet
of the Apes; however, it ignores the various sequels and spin-offs
(including a TV series) that derived from that property. It also denies the
existence of Tim Burton's remake. Rise of
the Planet of the Apes is designed so that it can stand alone as an alternate history of how the world got
to where it was when Charlton Heston landed. In the event that it is
profitable, it can provide the springboard for a new Planet of the Apes motion picture series. From tactical business
standpoint, Fox has positioned Rise of
the Planet of the Apes smartly. Unfortunately, the same terminology cannot
be used to describe what transpires between the beginning and end credits.

Rise of the Planet
of the Apes
tells of the origins of an apocalypse. It's not really the whole story - a
rushed ending telegraphs how most of humanity gets wiped out (with details
presumably being fleshed out in a possible second installment). The film is
allegorical, although it offers little that's new in its depictions of
inter-species bigotry and its warnings about playing god. The original Planet of the Apes does a better job
with the former and Mary Shelly's
Frankenstein offers a more compelling lesson in the latter.

Perhaps
appropriately, the apes (chimpanzees,
orangutans, and a gorilla) are better developed than their human counterparts.
It's curious how director Rupert Wyatt
gets us to care about the mostly-CGI creatures in this movie while leaving us
largely unmoved by the actor-portrayed characters. It's difficult to say
whether this is an asset or a detriment given the nature of the story, but it
makes the scenes devoted to the myriad problems of scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) seem inconsequential. In
fact, most of the material not featuring Caesar the chimp feels like filler.

Rise of the Planet
of the Apes
is assembled from bits and pieces hijacked from the 1968 original and its
various follow-ups. For those familiar with the franchise, this is all setup.
For those who have never heard of Planet
of the Apes, it's a reasonable jumping-off point. The force-fitting of
pieces into a larger context, however, lends an incomplete feel to this movie.
In 20 years, if we look back at a series of five or six Planet of the Apes films, this one might work better than it does
as a stand-alone. The story simply stops. There is no closure for any of the
characters and the global situation is advanced through a shorthand explanation
provided during the end credits. And, unlike Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One, where we knew there
would be a Part Two, there are no guarantees with Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Based
on the bland performance displayed here, it's hard to believe that James Franco
was nominated for an Oscar. He may be one of those actors who excels in dramas
but loses his way in popcorn-oriented forums. In Rise of the Planet of the Apes, he plays the father of the
apocalypse. Trying to fast-track development of a cure for Alzheimer's, which
afflicts his ailing father (John Lithgow),
Will cuts through red-tape and ends up with a deadly combination: a drug that
boosts the intelligence of lab chimps but creates a fatal virus in humans. An
accident allows the virus to get into the general population, but that
development is left in the background until the end credits. Meanwhile, Will,
along with his girlfriend, primatologist Caroline Aranha (Slumdog Millionaire's Freida
Pinto, criminally underused), raises baby chimp Caesar (Andy Sirkis and a lot of special
effects) to adulthood. Aggressive acts lead to Caesar being confined in an ape sanctuary with hundreds of other
chimps, orangutans, and gorillas, where he suffers cruelly at the hands of the
men who run the place, John Landon (Brian
Cox) and his son, Dodge (Tom Felton,
bringing along his Harry Potter personality). In this environment, Caesar
begins to assemble his army.

Rise of the Planet
of the Apes
is a more plot-oriented endeavor than one might expect from a would-be summer
tent pole. The action is limited, although what there is of it - including a
well-executed battle between apes and humans on the Golden Gate Bridge - is expertly
handled and clearly presented. Andrew
Lesnie's camerawork is at times beautiful and artistic - the first shot,
with the camera diving into an African jungle, is an example. Rise of the Planet of the Apes' composition
is so strong that it reminds the viewer how easy it is to pollute the visual
aspect of a movie with special effects, explosions, and 3-D.

There
are, of course, plenty of computer-generated images in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Most of them, however, are
integrated with care and rarely look artificial. Andy Serkis, who has already
played King Kong, is now the go-to guy when it comes to motion capture. He plays Caesar much like he played Kong and Gollum. This approach
allows the chimp to interact believably with the human actors; it also results
in Caesar being the only character in Rise
of the Planet of the Apes with whom viewers develop an emotional bond. The
role reversal is strange: the real human beings are semi-formed entities and
the computer-generated creation is three-dimensional.

The
central problem with Rise of the Planet
of the Apes is that it feels more like a piece of something larger than a
complete motion picture. There are some great sequences: the aforementioned
Golden Gate Bridge conflict being one and Caesar's society-building within the
compound being another. But there's also a lot of filler and few of the
human-centered scenes really work (unless Caesar is involved). Especially
embarrassing are the office politic segments in which Will negotiates with his
boss (David Oyelowo). Overall, the
movie is competent enough to make me curious about the potential future
direction of Planet of the Apes
films, but not so compelling that I'll wait for them. [Berardinelli’s
rating: ** ½ out of 4]